What? I thought man was basically good. That's what we've been taught by "secular humanists". It's those nasty Christians, and dare I say it, the Bible, that tell us man is totally depraved and in need of something outside himself for guidance.

That is shocking to read. How someone could watch children being hurt is beyond me. Things like that and the shootings at schools by adults AND students are inconceivable to me.

I have a philosophy regarding man that I try to keep in mind when reading and seeing the horrible events in the world:
Mankind is human, expect it to live down to its lowest potential.

It doesn't solve things I know but it helps me to be less surprised by the sadistic tendencies of our fellow man.

Remember as you sit and judge these perpetrators, that we, the observers of such atrocities, are capable of the same or worse. It is truly by the grace of God that some of us aren't making similar headlines.

Unfortunately the original story that was linked to rolled out of the news feed on that site and I do not recall what it was about.

As for "many of our posts" being "rants or raves", on the POL forums, I would say no they are not. I wouldn't call requests for scripting help, feature requests, bug reports, posts announcing UO tools etc. rants. I freely admit there are some things that I might be accuaed of raving about. If I like something I tend to promote it.

Some of the posts here that might be interpreted as "rants" do not come close to the "flame wars" seen on many sites.